Dartmouth Gets Letter

Dartmouth became the latest school to be flooded with letters from a man claiming he was attracted to men but repelled by homosexual behavior last week.

Hundreds of male students and some female students with non-gender specific names received the letter, authored by a man who claims to want "to find someone gay that I like," as he wrote in an e-mail to The Dartmouth, the campus newspaper.

In a telephone interview with The Dartmouth, the author claimed to have sent almost 10,000 letters to Ivy League schools.

The man, who claimed in his letters to be a Harvard graduate, sent letters explaining that though he finds himself attracted to men, he doesn't like behavior he thinks of as typically gay.

He asked recipients to write back and included a Cambridge post office box number for the replies.

Similar letters were received by students last month at Williams College and two years ago by students at Harvard and Yale.

Dartmouth students seemed unperturbed by the mass mailing.

"I didn't really care," said sophomore Joe J. Edelman.

Other students echoed Edelman's view.

"I found it humorous initially," said first-year Seth H. Hitchins. "I thought it was a hoax or prank played by another school."

The story on the letter in The Dartmouth focused on concern about the easy access to students' names, addresses and other information.

"This recent incident calls into question the availability of student information to people outside of Dartmouth," the article said under a headline reading "College Gives Any-one Vital Stats."